In most general purpose computers, an operating system is the primary software that manages access to resources within the computer. The primary resources are the central processing unit (CPU), which executes application programs designed to run on the computer, main memory and storage. In some computer architectures, additional processing units (such as multiple cores in a processor) and/or additional processors, called co-processors, may be present. Examples of such co-processors include a graphic processing unit (GPU) and a digital signal processor (DSP). The operating system also manages access to these resources by multiple processes.
A field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a kind of logic device that is commonly used in specialized computing devices. An FPGA typically is used to perform a specific, dedicated function, for which a gate array is particularly well-suited. FPGAs typically are found in peripheral devices, or other specialized hardware, such as a printed circuit board connected to and accessed through a system bus such as a PCI bus. In general, such devices are programmed once, and used many times. Because these devices are programmable, they have an advantage over other specialized logic devices in that they can be updated in the field.